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(Hungary) -- Holcim is to close its cement factory in the Hungarian city of Labatlan (N Hungary) by next year, communications director of Holcim Hungaria Zrt., Iren Marta told local press on Monday.

According to reports in MTI, Holcim originally planned to wind up the 144 years old plant by 2010, but its lifetime had since been extended by environment-friendly investments of almost HUF 500m to 2016. However, the downturn of Hungary's construction industry has now made closing unavoidable, Ms Marta said.

Holcim employed more than 500 people at cement, concrete and aggregates plants around Hungary in 2010, and 413 at the end of 2011. Its combined revenue in Hungary exceeded HUF 24bn in 2010, and it fell to HUF17.9bn last year.

In response to the crisis in the construction sector, Holcim Hungary initiated an extensive restructuring process, and in other markets of Eastern Europe, the production of aggregates and ready-mix concrete was also adjusted in line with lower demand.

At the end of last year it indefinitely shelved a plan the build a cement factory in Nyergesujfalu (N Hungary) which was designed to replace the plant in Labatlan, and postponed also until further notice the construction of a cement distribution base in Dabas, near Budapest.

Holcim, which operates a cement plant in Theodore, Ala, has received the First Place 2015 Gulf Guardian Award in the Business and Industry Category from Environmental Protection Agency's Gulf of Mexico Program for its advanced stormwater management efforts. More